Social attitudes, not age, influence drinking
Posted on | December 17, 2009 | No Comments
Sir Liam Donaldson’s recommendation to the Government that children should not be allowed to drink alcohol under the age of 15 is, in my view, simply wrong.
Sir Liam contends that alcohol can be damaging to young people- a point that I wholeheartedly agree with and understand. But nothing magically happens at the age of 15 that makes a young person then capable of handling alcohol consumption.
The issue here is not one of age, but of parental and societal attitudes towards alcohol.
Undoubtedly the availability of cheap alcohol leads vulnerable young people and adults who don’t know how to control themselves, to overdo and binge drink. But simply having cheap alcohol available, shouldn’t necessarily mean that our young people and adults feel the need to buy and drink so much.
Alcohol is presented as the answer to all of our worries: Culturally, we joke about it in our daily life; we encourage regular drinking either at the pub after work or out at the weekend; our young people set out with the aim of getting drunk, thinking that they haven’t had a good night out if it doesn’t end in them being sick; and most frighteningly, in my opinion, is the presentation of alcohol to young men, as the means of getting young women into bed. Whatever happened to being a smooth talking charmer?
Binge drinking and drunkenness is seen as part of our bravado culture, our aphrodisiac…and it is our shame.
But restricting its consumption to some pre-determined age is not the answer.
At present, children can drink alcohol at home from the age of 5. This of course, doesn’t mean that parents give their children a drink at the age of 5. Responsible parents may introduce their child to small amount of cider, or a watered down glass of wine at the dinner table from about 12.
But it is the parents’ attitude towards alcohol that is very influential; it’s the way that we laugh at sobriety on popular television shows like Shameless and Ibiza Uncovered, or even Father Ted; it’s the way that drinking cheap alcohol is presented as the most important part of a good night out, rather than just a small aspect of spending time with friends.
Until we can address our society’s attitudes towards alcohol, setting a magic age at which young people can drink will not be enough.
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